Nathan Daboll

Background

Nathan Daboll was born on April 24, 1750 in Groton, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of Nathan and Anna (Lynn) Daboll. The former, as witness to the will of the Reverend Jonathan Owen, spelled his name “Dibbell. ”

Education

Although Nathan received some instruction in the local school and under the village parson, Reverend Jonathan Barber, young Nathan was for the most part self-taught. His tutor thought him dull, probably because he showed little interest in anything but mathematics. For this science, however, he had great natural aptitude, and while, through force of necessity, he worked as a cooper, he mastered the intricacies of its higher branches.

Career

In 1770 Timothy Green of New London was publishing a series of almanacs prepared by Clark Elliott.

An error in the calculations for that year, perhaps discovered by Daboll, so mortified Elliott that he withdrew his name from subsequent issues, substituting the nom de plume of “Edmund Freebetter, ” and Daboil was employed to revise the calculations.

In 1773 Green also published the New England Almanack by Nathan Daboll. For some years, however, Daboll’s name was not on the title-page. According to James H. Trumbull (List of Books Printed in Connecticut 1709-1800, 1904), “Mr. Daboll’s name appeared first on the Almanac of 1773, and was continued on those of 1774 and 1775. It was then dropped for that of ‘Edmund Freebetter, whose almanacs had gained a degree of popularity hardly inferior to those published with the name of Ames. In 1793 the New England Almanack, &c. , ‘by Nathan Daboll’ was published, and in announcing it (October 18, 1792) Green states that ‘to Mr. Daboll the public have for many years been indebted for the correct calculation of Freebetter’s Almanack. ’”

Living in a maritime town, and proficient in navigation and nautical astronomy, he also devoted much time to the instruction of seamen.

In 1783 he was persuaded to become teacher of mathematics and astronomy in Plainfield (Connecticut) Academy, but returned to Groton in 1788, and resumed his work as a nautical instructor.

In 1799 he published Daboll’s Complete Schoolmaster’s Assistant, an early and extensively used school arithmetic.

Members both of the merchant marine and of the navy were his pupils.

In 1811, on the invitation of Commodore Rodgers, he taught a large class in the cabin of the frigate President.

He also prepared Daboll’s Practical Navigator: Being a concise, easy, and comprehensive system of Navigation, calculated for the daily use of seamen, and also for an Assistant to the Teacher. Also a New, Scientific and very short method of Correcting the Dead Reckoning; with rules for keeping a complete Reckoning at Sea applied to Practice, and exemplified in three separate JOURNALS, in which may be seen all the varieties which can possibly happen in a Ship’s Reckoning (1820). It was printed and sold by Samuel Green of New London, who states that the sickness and death of the author is responsible for delay in publication.

Achievements

• Daboll wrote the mathematics textbook most commonly used in American schools in the first half of the 19th century.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Daboll's schoolmaster's assistant: Improved and enl

    (This book, "Daboll's Schoolmaster's Assistant: Improved a...)

  • Daboll's Schoolmaster's Assistant, Improved and Enlarged. Being a Plain Practical System

    (Daboll's Schoolmaster's Assistant, Improved and Enlarged....)

  • The New England Almanack, for the Year of Our Lord Christ, 1809: Being the 1st. after leap year; & the 33d of the independence of the United States. Fitted to the meridian of New London, lat. 41 25 N. but will answer without any essential variation for either of the New England States. Containing, besides the astronomical calculations a great variety of matter, New, Useful & Entertaining.
  • Daboll's Arithmetic. Green's Book-Keeping.

Personality

Daboll is described as of medium height, stoutly built, inclining somewhat to corpulency in later life, with massive head, high, broad forehead, and heavy overarching eyebrows. Taciturn and reserved, he mingled little in society.

Connections

Daboll was married twice: first to a cousin, Elizabeth, daughter of John Daboll 2nd; and after her death to “Widow Elizabeth Brown” of Noank, Connecticut, United States.

Father:

Nathan Dabol

Mother:

Anna (Lynn) Daboll

Second wife:

Elizabeth Brown

First wife:

Elizabeth Daboll